In the last few years NIS have been developing some really interesting and unique games alongside the usual anime style of games they are known for. Games like Destiny Connect, The Caligula Effect, void tRrlM(); //Void Terrarium, The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince and many others are games that at first glance don’t scream Nippon Ichi Software, but spend a couple of hours with each of them and the charm that NIS has in their anime-esque style of games shines though. You can add Poison Control to that list.
Poison Control is an action JRPG that has you take on the role of the nameless hero that recently died and ended up in hell. You don’t know how or why you ended up here in the first place so you start wandering around till you encounter a strange creature called a Klesha. This thing lunges at you and at first you think that this is it again, but instead of ripping you into shreds the Klesha takes on the form of a female. Going by the name Poisonette, she has chosen you to be her Soul Mate in order to escape from Hell. And in order to do that the two of you must purify Hell from Poison Mires and purify wayward Belles’ Hells (other human souls).
The game mechanics for Poison Control is a third person shooter with some RPG elements. Your main way of attacking is using a hand cannon that shoots various bullets, or poisons as they’re called. The main cannon that you will be using most of the time is the toxicant and you start off with the poison type Poisonette who also is your soulmate. As you go through Hell you will pick up two other cannons, deliatnts and catalysts which also have their own poison types and properties. Aiming feels kind of weird as even if you aim straight at the heads of enemy creatures, the poison seems to veer off slightly, think of when a light gun arcade cabinet is not calibrated correctly and fires off center. That’s how the shooting in Poison Control feels like. As for the RPG elements, you are able to upgrade your various weapons stats from increasing the ammo and how powerful each shot is to recharge/reload time. Speaking of the recharge/reload time, this aspect of the game can get very annoying as the game doesn’t let you manually reload.The other aspect of the game mechanics is purifying Poison Mires by purging them. In order to do that Poispnette takes control when you push the L shoulder button. She pops out, while you transform into a skeleton as she runs around the Poison Mires and encircles them in a ring. When she completes the ring the Poison Mires disappear. She does have a limited range and limited time before she gets pulled back into you and you regain control.
The Hell of Poison Control is very interesting looking to say the least. Instead of the reds, yellows and oranges that we associate Hell with, Hell in Poison Control is a neon/pastel shade of pink with a few shades of pastel colors depending on the level.. It looks weird and yet cool at the same time. As for the character/enemy models they were pretty interesting too. Poisonette has an anime/art deco style to her that looks really cool and stylish, same goes for the enemies and cutscenes as they use the same style. The art style kind of reminds me of how Person 4 Golden looks.
Poison Control is a pretty interesting third person shooter and game in general from NIS. The story has that flare that most NIS games have. The colors and the character designs are cool looking and much different from what I’m used to from NIS. The gameplay mechanics are pretty simple yet solid though there are a few flaws with aiming and not being able to manually reload. It’s really something different from the typical SRPGs/TRPGS, beat em ups/hack n’ slash and dungeon crawlers that NIS usually develop and publishes, which is good as they are experimenting more. If you’re a fan of NIS and are looking for something a bit different from their usual offering, I reconmend checking out Poison Control.
